Ham sandwich a contraband in post- Brexit world
Travellers entering from Britain face new reality as non- EU visitors can’t carry perishable stuff
Aham sandwich is seized by customs officials from a truck driver entering the Netherlands by ferry from Britain despite the man’s fervent pleas to at least leave him the bread.
Other customs officials rummage through bags in a car trunk, debating whether they should seize a tin of possibly contraband sardines.
The scenes, broadcast by a current affairs programme in the Netherlands, showed the strict enforcement of postBrexit import rules after Britain completed its separation from the European Union on December 31 and new arrangements for travel, trade, immigration and security cooperation took effect.
“Welcome to the Brexit, sir,” one of the customs officers says to the truck driver, laughingly. “Can you take the meat and leave me the bread?” the driver pleads fruitlessly. “I’m sorry,” the officer replies.
The EU does not allow travellers from outside countries to bring fruit, vegetables, meat or dairy products, even for personal consumption. And now, those outside countries include Britain.
“We are simply executing regulations. As of January 1, it is no longer allowed to bring in perishable goods from the United Kingdom for travellers,” said Bob van ‘ t Klooster, a spokesperson for Dutch customs. He insisted this was not nitpicking.
“We have the same regulations for people coming in fromthe UK at Amsterdam airport,” he said. Because of the pandemic, the effects of the separation are yet to be fully felt. There is still relatively little traffic between Britain and mainland Europe.
Frustration to increase
But the Dutch current affairs programme “EenVandaag” followed a team of customs officials working at the Hoek van Holland port as about 100 passengers disembarked after a nearly seven- hour ferry ride from the port of Harwich in England.
The programme quotes Rien de Ruijter, a team leader at the local customs site, who said that while volumes of travellers were now low, he expected waiting times and frustration to increase when travel restrictions were lifted.
In another scene in the programme, a customs official seizes a tin of sardines, proclaiming that fish is not allowed.
“I don’t think that anyone in the United Kingdom had ever expected this. But this is the Brexit,” De Ruijter said. “This is the new reality we have to deal with.”